At the heart of any healthy relationship is trust.
We instinctively understand this fact. Yet, we sometimes allow our own insecurities, weaknesses, and selfishness to rob us of trust which, in turn, robs us of the joy and peace we could be experiencing with other people.
There are resources available designed to help us strengthen personal relationships and to deal with broken relationships. In both instances, almost all of those resources place an emphasis on building or rebuilding trust.
My question is whether we can take what we know about trust in personal relationships and apply it more broadly. For example, how does trust, and a lack of trust, affect a neighborhood?
The importance of societal trust can be traced back to French sociologist Émile Durkheim who published his doctoral dissertation, The Division of Labor in Society, in 1893. As I understand it, he argued that primitive societies are characterized by mechanical solidarity or sameness. In such a society, everyone has the same type of job and, therefore, they function as a collective and share similar beliefs.[i] This type of society is, perhaps, best exemplified by an agrarian culture where everyone is a farmer.
He also argued that as society becomes more advanced, there is a need for different jobs and responsibilities. Hence the division of labor. In the mechanical solidarity society, the members build trust through similar values. However, in the advanced society where members from different backgrounds, beliefs, and jobs co-mingle, trust is harder to build since there are fewer commonly held beliefs or experiences.[ii] He further argued that distrust among individuals resulted in the deterioration and social instability necessary for a healthy, safe, and sustainable society.[iii]
It is this idea that requires further consideration: how does distrust erode our societies, hurt our neighborhoods, and undermine our values?
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For more information on “(Re)Building Trust: A Trauma-informed Approach to Leadership,” please visit my website mrchrisfreeze.com.
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